Between human capital values and the distribution of those values and their impact on the overall wealth equation with respect to future consumption risks as well as asset pricing via increased asset focus of flows due to distribution dynamics;

Within portfolio structure and relative to the liquidity and capital security dynamics of liability streams.

All of this tied to the relationship between frame transitions, emergent properties and structural imbalances and unconventional monetary policy focused overly on asset price support.

Japan has been at the forefront of weakening GDP/wages/growth, deteriorating demographics, elevated sovereign debt and extreme monetary policy. Of all the major economies, given its existing debt burden and aging population, Japan is arguably the closest to Helicopter money.

Post 2012, policy (Abenomics) aimed at stimulating demand, generating wage growth and inflation has failed with respect to the specific objectives set. But then again, what is an optimal level of consumption in a declining demographic paradigm? Perhaps in the modern world it is one which drives growth to the point that current debt levels become manageable, or where risky assets provide returns commensurate with the consumption liabilities expected to be provided by them. In this context, global Central Banks have been consciously attempting to manufacture growth for at least a decade. Helicopter Money would however break this intercession, acknowledging that only more money supply and more debt relative to growth can support the expenditure/infrastructure side of the balance sheet: it is difficult to comprehend just how the asset side of the balance sheet would evolve in such circumstances. I suspect that there would need to be an adjustment, a reset, but even that would be only half the story. That said, on to Japan:

Japanese real GDP growth has been sliding heavily since the bursting of its own asset bubble starting in 1990:

In a recent post,”There’s nothing left-wing about a higher inflation target”, Tony Yates called for an increase in the Bank of England’s inflation target from 2% to 4%. Raising the inflation target for some reason would allow for higher interest rates that would provide the necessary leeway to combat economic downturns without being hemmed in by the zero lower bound.

While I do not necessarily agree with the statement I do agree with the dynamics that quite possibly underlie it. Yes, if the inflation target had been higher central banks may not have been as aggressive keeping inflation under control and possibly inflation may not have fallen to current levels. Interest rates may therefore not have trended down from the early 1990s to their pre crisis levels.

If interest rates had not moved downwards over this period then it is likely that we would have seen much less asset focussed debt creation and the foundations of the crisis that led to a precipitous immediate drop in growth and weaker growth post crisis would likely have been somewhat curtailed. The fact interest rates are hemmed in at the lower bound though has more to do with the dynamics of high levels of debt and their relationship with high asset values amidst the constraints of low economic/income growth. In other words it is the past that has the greater weight, not the future. So yes, clearly, without the debt accumulation and with higher interest rates we would possibly not be at this particular chokehold.

But, interest rates did not fall solely because inflation fell, they fell because growth rates were also falling and because of a number of financial shocks to growth starting in the late 1990s. In a sense interest rates fell to stimulate growth and anything that stimulates growth also risks stimulating inflation.That it did not is a very moot point.

In reality, all other things being equal, where inflation is caused by imbalances between supply and demand, the higher the inflation target you have the lower the interest rate target, and since I believe that lower interest rates have helped foster successive financial bubbles I am concerned over the integrity of higher inflation targets per se given the dynamics. I would have preferred higher interest rate targets and less monetary stimulus even if this had meant a lower growth trajectory. I can see little wrong with low inflation within a structurally stable economic framework.

But let us suppose the argument is one of expectations and by raising the Bank’s own inflation targets so will the general public. I think if this was the case the article should have clearly expressed it. I do not personally feel that today’s deflation is led by individuals delaying expenditure in the expectation of lower prices tomorrow, although this does not mean it could not start to happen. The question is, after all the best efforts of central banks the world over to stimulate growth over the last 20 years have led to the present moment in time of low interest rates and falling prices, how will putting an expectation of higher inflation into CB policy actually raise both inflation and interest rates?

Perhaps by raising inflation expectations we may cause consumers to spend more and save less. But this assumes that people are spending less than they are capable of (the wealthy “1%” perhaps, but do they need to spend more?) as well as the fact that deflation is impacting the saving/spending decisions of consumers.

Personally I would rather have seen a higher interest rate framework and reduced asset focussed money supply growth with lower potential inflation implications than the situation we are currently in. It has less to do with inflation and more to do with structural economic integrity. Trying to stimulate expenditure via every manner possible has led us into all sorts of problems.

The primary interest rate conflict is not between inflation and growth, but between asset prices and a potential asset price shock to growth and the financial system. Increasing income inequality and weak wage growth keeps the US and other economies within a debt/asset value/IR bounded endogenous money supply chokehold. A successive series of debt/asset bubbles and interest rate lows are not a succession of unrelated incidents but a tightening of an extremely dangerous grip.

In the most recent Federal reserve Bank of Chicago Missive, Patience Is a Virtue When Normalizing Monetary Policy, much interesting information was imparted on employment trends…but there was little comment about interest rates and their relationship with the build up of asset focussed money supply growth……this build up of broad MS was and still is reflected in highly valued asset markets and global debt accumulation. Its magnitude can be gauged by the large surge in broad MS growth over and above nominal GDP growth.

“With the economy undershooting both our employment and inflation goals, monetary policy does not presently face a conflict in goals;

I foresee a time when a policy dilemma might emerge: Namely, we could find ourselves in a situation in which the progress or risks to one of our goals dictate a tightening of policy while the achievement of the other goal calls for maintaining strong accommodation.